Rapporteur condemns recent execution in Florida and testing of new lethal substance

29/08/2017

Legal Affairs and Human Rights

Yves Cruchten (Luxembourg, SOC), PACE General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty, has expressed outrage at the execution, last Thursday in Florida, of Mark James Asay, convicted of a double murder in 1988.

?This execution was carried out with a drug that has never been used before in a lethal cocktail in the United States, etomidate – replacing midazolam, an already controversial sedative – which may be painful before becoming effective and may provoke severe irritation and burns, according to doctors”, the Rapporteur stressed.

?The death penalty is a form of punishment which constitutes an unacceptable violation of human rights, whatever the crime”, said Mr Cruchten, who called on Florida to put an end to executions and to immediately stop using experimental drugs.